Logout Enabled
by Life is Truely Great
Summary: Where were you when logout was enabled? Series of one-shots, where various players were when the game was cleared, and what SAO meant to them.
1. Lovers

He was the only reason she was glad she had ever put on the NerveGear.

"Dammit, Rose! I love you. Please don't leave me." He muttered incoherent words into her chest as his mouth swept across her collarbone leaving hot open-mouthed kisses and gentle bites. He was an avid gamer who found RoseFire only four months ago in a dungeon by herself facing down a level 45 Kracken, locked into inaction by sheer terror. If he had been seconds later, she would have disappeared with the rest of her party. The only indication she'd ever even been there would be the server population number dropping one more digit. No one would have noticed this late in the game.

It had taken a week and a half for him to break her out of her shell-shocked stupor. Her three previous party mates she had known in real life. Close friends from college. It was their junior year – well it had been when SAO launched. NoirWolf had learned all this much later, two months later, when RoseFire finally opened up to him slightly and could tell him about how she had come to be in that dungeon, much higher than was wise for her level.

During that slow beginning to their relationship, NoirWolf had been patient. Just wanting to feel like he really mattered to someone in this hellish game. Like he had saved at least one person. Made a difference here. He wasn't a brave, high level player in the clearing group. Hell, he was scared shitless just like everyone else. But he continued pushing himself forward so that he would at least have the strength to help someone, so he wouldn't be dead weight to anyone, or just another drop in the server population.

RoseFire was thankful for Wolf's companionship more than she could ever express during the time after she lost her friends. He would bring her food at every meal and paid for a room at the inn for her on floor 35 so she wouldn't be worried about the player killers. He would sit at the end of her bed holding her hand, or in the chair always positioned right next to the night stand and brush her hair away from her tear stricken face. His small comforts meant the world to her.

After nine days, when she looked up into his beautiful green eyes full of emotion, his hair falling forward over his forehead as he leaned over her to brush her bangs aside, she reached up to cup the side of his face and slowly bring his lips to hers. His eyes had gone wide and his cheeks rosy with the unexpected gesture. She could tell he was surprised, and maybe not too experienced when it came to women. Wrapping her other arm around his shoulders, she urged him down onto the mattress with her. He moved smoothly but with a hint of uncertainty. He kept tension in his forearms on either side of her, unsure to lay all of his weight on top of her while they continued to press their lips together in a chaste, sweet kiss. Rose tried to bring him closer by wrapping a leg around his hips which coaxed a shuddering breath from his open mouth. Her warm lips crashed onto his, taking advantage of the opening, tongue sweeping in to run along the back of his teeth.

He ended the kiss and raised his upper body further from hers. A small smile itching its way up from the corners of his mouth.

"Heh. Uh…. Hi." Rose realized that in all the days he had watched over her, they had never spoken to one another. She blushed to the roots of her brunette hair.

"Hi." She managed to squeak out.

That was the starting moment of their relationship. On day 10, RoseFire left the inn with NoirWolf and they meandered through town unhurriedly. Noir kept their conversations to the world of SAO to avoid bringing up her departed friends. He never asked for her real name, or about her family back home, if she had a boyfriend, what other hobbies she had. They were content to just be in each others' company.

Now, at day 127, Wolf felt like he knew Rose better than he'd known anyone else in his life, maybe even himself. She was a kind person, who cared and worried deeply for those close to her. She wasn't vain although she had beautiful, rich, dark chocolate colored hair and striking hazel eyes. She was even somewhat shy when it came to her skills as a player in this game. Wolf loved having her near him, loved waking up to the scent of her hair on his pillow, the way she coyly batted her eyelashes at him to make him blush when he was unsure… he loved her.

Today was the day he wanted to tell her all of his. He took her to a pretty gazebo in the castle's outer grounds on floor forty with a small speech he had prepared, and then completely garbled. But she was beaming none the less. Her petite hands tugged his tall, lanky frame down to her level and kissed him with all her might, smiling so large he could feel her dimples pressing against his skin. He staggered forward slightly as she jumped onto him, wrapping her legs around him and peppering his entire face with excited kisses as he chuckled and clutched onto her for dear life. He was so happy he could float away.

She raced him to the nearest inn (they hadn't accrued enough col to buy a house yet). Once they were inside the familiar rooms, they couldn't keep their hands off each other. Rose was leading his movements towards the bed and guiding his hands where she wanted them.

Tangled in sheets, muffled moans pouring over each others' skin, suddenly they heard a loud canon in the distance. Then silence.

"What was that?" Rose whispered, still frozen. They could hear all the normal sounds of a bustling town come to a halt. The birds stopped chirping, the voices of NPCs selling their wares were gone. Then all of a sudden, sobbing from someone somewhere outside their window. Then broken laughter. Cheering and bawling and triumphant shouts echoed around the town.

Rose and Wolf looked at each other in bewildered concern. What did this mean? Slowly, Wolf lifted himself off of the mattress and glanced towards the window. Rose reached for his arm, eyes pleading him to stay with her. He gave her a comforting kiss and walked to the window. Printed in the bright blue sky –

Congratulations!

Game Cleared. Logout enabled.

…

Was this real? Wolf stood there stunned, mouth agape.

"What is it?" Rose's nervous words reached his ears.

"It's over. The game's been cleared."

Rose lifted the sheets to her chin, eyes shining with unshed tears. "Wha… what does that mean?"

Bright light filtered in through the window growing in intensity. Wolf turned back around. Outside the window, the scenery began disintegrating. Evaporating into bright shards of light then shattering into nothingness. Wolf checked his menu, and a red circle that had never been there popped up – Do you wish to log out?

"Everything is disappearing." He turned back around to stare at Rose as he stood near the window, light cascading down his naked torso. Rose was shivering with quiet tears slowing falling down her cheeks. Striding back to the bed and pulling Rose into a tight embrace, kissing the top of her head. She continued to shiver in his hold, shaking her head back and forth.

"No. I don't want to leave. Please don't leave me!" He brushed butterfly kisses down her nose, over her tightly shut eyes.

"I won't. I'll find you in the real world." As Wolf continued to caress her hair and stroke up and down the sides of her body, he realized he could feel less and less of her. He looked into her eyes a sense of urgency gripping him. The same fear was staring back at his from Rose's beautiful hazel eyes. She was frantically trying to grab at him but couldn't feel the heat of his skin or his touch at all.

"Your name!" Rose shouted. "I don't know your real name! How will I find you?!" Rose could only hear a dim echo of her voice. No. Wolf couldn't hear her. Fear gripped her hard now, her eyes pierced his in pleading and anguish. His mouth was moving quickly but she couldn't hear a thing.

Wolf was staring at Rose's mouth, trying to read her lips. He kept repeating his name as calmly as he could manage, over and over, hoping in vain that should would understand and use his name to find him when they woke up. As hard as he was trying to understand what Rose was saying, he couldn't make out a thing.

The room erupted in light as the walls around them began falling apart. They clung to each other madly, hoping they could anchor themselves a few moments longer. Wolf smashed his lips hard down onto Rose's, craving to leave an imprint of himself there, but not able to feel anything in return. Between his fingers, Rose began to dissipate.

"No. No! Don't leave yet! I love you! Don't leave!"

His arms were empty. He was surrounded by white. The whiteness gradually faded to black and a message appeared before him –

Logout Successful.


	2. Friends

With a thud, the feral bear fell to the ground then disappeared in a shatter of crystal light.

"Good. We got another feral bear claw from this one. Just a few more and we'll have enough to make that order of greaves for the folks still stuck on floor 20," said a man glancing through his inventory.

His party member, Orion, grunted his agreement. "I'd like to be able to snag some meat for cooking too. It's been a while since any of us have had a decent meal. I know Kim's been working on upgrading her cooking skill."

"Alright. Let's head one field over then; venison tastes much better than bear meat."

"God, that last time Ben tried fixing the bear meat… I didn't realize virtual food could taste so bad," Riley mock gagged.

They looked at their surrounding scenery. If they let themselves forget that this was truly a game, it would have been a beautiful day in a stunning Conifer forest. The birds were chipping unseen high up in the tree limbs. Every once in a while the sound of scuffling dirt would rise up from a fox or some small creature burrowing into the ground. The two men situated their gear and weapons to trek over to the meadow to hunt for tastier game.

BOOM. BOOM.

The forest became still and silent. Riley cautiously glanced over towards Orion, on guard for a sudden change. Orion checked their surroundings – was this a random location event? What if it was a hidden floor boss? No one had ever reported stumbling upon one on this floor. Then again, most parties didn't make it out of hidden boss battles. With just the two of them there was no way they'd make it out.

Riley signaled his advancement, shield up to protect against an enemy attack. Orion held his crossbow at the ready. Slowly, Riley took two, three, four steps out into the sunlight of the forest meadow, then dropped his shield. Worry raced over Orion's features as he edged his way over to Riley, constantly checking for approaching targets. None appeared and the forest remained silent.

As Orion walked into the opening of the meadow he asked Riley, "Hey, what's wrong? Everything stopped moving, I can't hear anything." He never let his gaze leave the edge of the forest.

Riley was looking up into the sky, mouth hanging open as his eyes moved back and forth, over and over. Orion chanced a glance up to see what had caught the other man's attention. The banner in the bright blue sky read –

Congratulations!

Game Cleared. Logout enabled.

His bow slowly lowered to the ground. "Oh." Orion couldn't believe this was the end. It had been so long that he had forgotten there was an end. Hunting with his guildmates, his blacksmith shop, the small plot of farmland behind his homey cottage… they had all become his new way of life. Orion couldn't even remember what he'd been doing in real life, what was he working towards? An empty feeling settled over him. He turned to Riley who was sitting in the grass, menu open, staring at the little red button that had previously never been there – logout.

Orion placed a firm gloved hand on his partner's shoulder, leather-made from one of their first attempts at leatherworking back on floor 15. Riley looked back at him for the first time since seeing the unexpected words in the sky. He stood up and clasped Orion's hand in a sturdy handshake.

"Have a good one, mate." And with that, Riley logged out.

Suddenly, Orion was standing by himself in the open meadow. Of course he would logout, why wouldn't he? This was the day they'd all been waiting for, for just about two years. The two of them hadn't been that close. Just hunting parties here and there. Blacksmithing and leatherworking to provide lower leveled players with enough gear to safely move up in the game. It's not like Riley should have shared any of his personal information with Orion. They were just in-game friends, right? This was just a game.

Orion sat down in the lonely, silent meadow and watched as the castle far off in the horizon started to fall. Bits and pieces would break off and shatter into a million tiny crystals then disappear altogether. What did he have outside this game? He had his parents and an older sister, but they weren't that close either. He was sure they'd be happy to see him, definitely. But, after he was back at his one bedroom apartment they'd all drift apart again. Maybe the monthly calls to see how everything was going, anything new? Probably not.

Tch. Have a good one, what? A good logout? A good stay at the hospital, or physical therapy to drag his real life body out of the comatose stupor it had been in for two years? He had a perfectly fit body here. He could do way more here than he could in the real world. He had skills that were useful to himself and provided valuable services for others. He grew his own produce, hunted his own meat, took care of himself much better here than in the real world.

Have a good life? Ha. Why was he still sitting here thinking anyway. There was light filtering in through the trunks of the trees as Orion imagined the forest was beginning to fall away just like the castle. There would be nothing left here.

With a resigned sigh, Orion opened up his menu. His finger hovered over the red button. With one more view of the beautiful Conifer forest, he mumbled a goodbye and pressed down.

Logout Successful.


	3. Alone

It was 2:50 in the afternoon. From the bridge where she was standing she could see the sun just past its zenith peeking from behind a cloud. She had been staring at the main menu for a while now. The server population value steady at 6,148. Almost four thousand people had died in this game. What for? What purpose did the creator have for all this? What single man should play god for ten thousand people? Shell had a life outside of this game. She had real people to get back to! God, it had been almost two years already. Was her boyfriend still waiting at her bedside? What happened to the car payments or her apartment that she'd just managed to get into, were they still hers?

Shell was endlessly frustrated. What is the point of this damn game?! How does everyone even know that all the people that "died" didn't just wake up at home like it was all a bad dream. The only thing Shell was sure of was that the time was real. It had really been nearly two years here. A person couldn't make up the agonizingly slow droll of day after day in this world. And she couldn't do a damn thing to speed it up, to make it end faster.

After all this time, she knew it was worth the risk. Shell looked below her at the glossy shine of the water. If you watched the waves long enough, you'd see the repetitive pathing of the programmed graphics. Just another reminder that none of this was real. Others had let themselves get wrapped up in this world and made it their new home. But what was the point? Shell had a real home! This was all fake! Nothing would carry over to the real world. All those people that spent so much time and effort here. Sacrificed their lives in the clearing group, what would they accomplish? Nothing. This was just a game. A game created by a small man with a god complex.

If Shell jumped off this bridge she may die in this world. But this world wasn't real, and meant nothing. She might even wake up in the real world and start back over like nothing had happened. Like this whole ordeal was just a glitch, a hiccup in her normal, real life.

She glanced down at the menu again as the server population ticked down to 6,147. Someone else was making the same choice. What did she have to lose?

Taking a deep breath and looking up into the glaringly digital sun, wearing a firm look of determination, with stronger conviction than she'd felt in 2 years, Shell raised her foot to take a step –

BOOM. BOOM.

Skittering back from the edge and grabbing onto the iron cords suspended around her, Shell's eyes nervously darted around. The glare from the water was more severe, glancing down she could see the waves were glitching and large swaths of water were disappearing. What was this? The feeling of iron in her hand that had so firmly been there a moment before, began to dissolve. But she was still holding onto it, could still see it solidly in her grasp.

Movement caught the corner of her eye. She glanced up into the sky and a wide banner opened up.

Congratulations!

Game Cleared. Log out enabled.

Shell stumbled back and fell onto the ground. It was over. Tears streaking down her face and a happy smile on her lips, exhausted chuckles pouring out. A little red button blipped onto her menu screen.

Do you wish to log out?

"Yes. Oh god, yes!"

Everything began to shatter into bright crystals around her and turn to white nothing.

Log Out Successful.


End file.
